3 Innovative Ways to Win Swag on Blogs

How to maximize your chances when it comes to reaping the blog sweepstakes rewards

By Eli Pacheco

I watch them fly by on my Twitter feed … giveaways and sweepstakes on blogs.

Some are on blogs I trust. Others, just from bloggers I follow. I’ve won before – neat glass jars from Infinity Jars on The Mom of the Year blog. I’ve won a couple of excellent books, too, and once, a fresh pair of sunglasses that would never fit in my budget.

Often, bloggers win on other blogs. Hosts can ask for anything from a simple comment to a series of likes and follows through a third-party service, such as Raffle Copter.

Is winning a matter of luck – or is it possible to tip the scales in our favor? Here are tips for winning the blog-giveaway game.

1. Give it time

Bigger giveaways, TVs and cruises, leave the door open for registration longer. This is to cultivate mass entries. In the first couple of months, they’ll draw a flood of response. Wait a couple of months, and then enter.

Some giveaway experts have a theory on this. Many blog hosts use the website random.org to determine a winner. The site tends to pick higher numbers more often than lower ones.

Usually, entries are entered in chronological order, so early entries don’t appear to have as great a shot at winning. It’s not scientific, but if you enter too early, you might decrease your odds.

2. Maximize efficiency

Sweepstakers know there’s tons of typing in entering contests. Consider software that fills forms and creates shortcuts for you, such as Texter or Roboform. These auto-populate fields on entries.

That allows the user to spend less time entering and more time winning – or at least finding more giveaways.

3. Follow them

Subscribe to blogs that give away the excellent prizes – or at least, the goods that you are interested in. Like their Facebook pages. Want to ensure their posts aren’t washed away in political bantering and adorable baby pictures? Do this:

Like their page

Click on the down arrow on the Like button

In IN YOUR NEWSFEED, select See First

In NOTIFICATIONS, select All On

What about the seedy side of giveaways?

There’s always the back alleys in blog giveaways. The summer of ’16 saw a common scam giveaway pop up for an RV on Facebook. Just comment, like, or share, and you’re entered! Only problem? There was no RV to give away.

It’s called like farming. Here’s how it works.

Site operators want to harvest tons of likes in a hurry. Every comment, like or share pushes their page to greater audiences on Facebook. Well, it was just a like, you say. That innocuous click just made you an accomplice, though.

Your new scam buddy can now send out survey scams to the “like list.”

The best defense

Enter sweepstakes on sites you visit and trust. Shortened links in social-media posts are risky. Stay in a safe online neighborhood. There’s books and gift cards out there, just waiting for you to enter.

Eli Pacheco is a blogger and writer in Charlotte, N.C. He’s a Colorado native who remembers having to get up to change TV channels. The advent of the cellular phone and email happened during one of his two junior years at UNC Charlotte. He struggles to text on tiny keyboards, and still pounds his keyboard like it’s an iron horse from 1977.